sarahjay
Written on Jul 24, 2015
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'The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea . . . dark and dangerous and full of twists' – GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
THE BESTSELLING BOOK BEHIND THE HIT SYFY SHOW
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In a secret world of forbidden knowledge, power comes at a terrible price...
Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton University, he finds his interviewer dead – but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a very different path. Instead of Princeton, he finds himself invited to study at Brakebills – a secret college of modern-day sorcerers.
Quentin plunges deep into a secret world of obsession and privilege, a world of freedom and power; and for a while, it seems to answer all Quentin's desires. But the idyll cannot last. There are others powers than sorcery, powers that are as seductive as they are dangerous – and when the illusion of safety shatters, Quentin is drawn into a world far darker than he ever imagined.
After all, power corrupts. No exceptions.
THE FIRST BOOK IN LEV GROSSMAN'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MAGICIAN TRILOGY
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Praise for the Magician Trilogy:
'Stirring, complex, adventurous . . . superb' – JUNOT DIAZ, author of DROWN and THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO
'A sophisticated, subtle novel that is also magical fun' – THE TIMES
‘Lev Grossman has conjured a rare creature: a trilogy that simply gets better and better as it goes along . . . Literary perfection.’ – ERIN MORGENSTERN, author of THE NIGHT CIRCUS
'The Magicians ought to be required reading . . . Lev Grossman has written a terrific, at times almost painfully perceptive novel of the fantastic' – KELLY LINK
'The best fantasy trilogy of the decade' – CHARLES STROSS
'The Magicians is angst-ridden, bleak, occasionally joyous and gloriously readable. Forget Hogwarts: this is where the magic really is.' – SFX
'The Magicians is fantastic, in all senses of the word. It's strange, fanciful, extravagant, eccentric, and truly remarkable – a great story, masterfully told.' – SCOTT SMITH, author of THE RUINS
- ISBN10 0099534444
- ISBN13 9780099534440
- Publish Date 8 October 2009 (first published 21 May 2009)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 1 April 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Cornerstone
- Imprint Arrow Books Ltd
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 496
- Language English
Reviews
malberto
Written on Jun 7, 2015
Over all I kind of liked the book and will read the second one, but it wasn't wat I expected at all....
bettyehollands
Written on Jan 24, 2015
ktshpd
Written on Jul 19, 2014
Michael @ Knowledge Lost
Written on Apr 13, 2014
Lev Grossman’s The Magicians on the surface reads like a cliché fantasy novel but there is something deeper here. If you think of The Magicians as a homage to series like Harry Potter, The Golden Compass and Narnia, you can focus on the coming-of-age element of the novel. I found similarities to The Neverending Story but if I looked deeper I would say this is more of a magical version of The Catcher in the Rye. Quentin Coldwater follows the Holden Caulfield archetype, full of angst, self-loathing and all the normal teenage boy awkwardness, almost to the point where he could be considered an antihero.
Quentin not only has to work through his new found magical abilities, this only takes a side plot to what is really happening in The Magicians. The novel depicts and often amplifies the prototypical teenage boy experience, the depression, angst and emotional carelessness. The idea of magic being a gift turns out to be more a curse for Quentin. Unlike Harry Potter this novel looks at the magic being a curse, choosing Brakebills to get an education was possibly a downfall in his adolescent life, or at least that would be how Quentin will view it.
This is not an escapist novel; in many cases The Magicians is anti-fantasy. Viewing magic as a curse was an interesting way to view life and the fantasy genre. While it does this in a very interesting way, the homage to children’s fantasy novels was a bit over the top, while trying to avoid being a cliché; it ended up falling face first into the formulaic. I would have liked to explore the ideas of education and growing up with a gift/curse more than the actual fantasy elements but that might have risked alienating the target audience.
The Magicians is not without its flaws; in fact this novel could have been so much better if it took a more focused approach. The coming of age elements were interesting, the homage and Fillory parts of the novel were annoying and I think it would have worked out better without them. If the next books in the series continue to explore magic as a curse, I will gladly read it but I’m not interested in the Fillory story arch.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/04/29/the-magicians-by-lev-grossman/
Eve1972
Written on Feb 9, 2010